Public trust in politics and institutions rose during the shutdown, and support for Rutte’s VVD party spiked in June, but now public acceptance is wearing thin in some groups, especially the 20 to 40-year-olds representing almost half of new infections.
Red light district resident Ab Gietelink and a protest group called Viruswaarheid (“virus truth”) failed to overturn the Amsterdam face mask ruling in court this week. “The research suggests new infections seem to come from clusters in closed spaces, at home and in cafés so we think that you need to look at ventilation,” he says. “Face masks, 1.5 metre distance and strange hygiene rules are an outdated way of thinking and have a huge social and economic effect.”
Shop union INretail claims that masks “dramatically” discourage trade in shopping streets, and in parliament too, the four-party government has come in for sharp criticism. Last week, health minister Hugo de Jonge had to backpedal on making quarantine obligatory, while opposition parties GroenLinks and Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom criticised the government for refusing nurses a pay rise.
“Unfortunately the Dutch government is making a mess of how to deal with the coronavirus,” Wilders says. “The minister of health care proposed compulsory quarantine but retracted it in one day, public health bureaux who have to track and trace people are still understaffed [and] schools are unprepared about the correct ventilation. Chaos.”